Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (ANZJFT) 32(3): 194-207 Abstract This article describes counselling practice as social action, reporting on a case of children witnessing community violence and its aftermath. Highlighted is the role of friends who made a stand of solidarity against such violence. Outsider witness practices helped recruit and grow a community of care for the client and his friends. This community of care was significantly enhanced by the involvement of a lawyer/musician/activist who composed a song with the three friends to take a stance against guns and violence in their society. Caring solidarity, generosity and doing hope together formed small but significant alliances against entrenched practices of violence.